Burton Dump Truck

[philw]

Ridden with hard boots of course. As per the argument on the other forum, this is a Powder Board, so the sidecut is 7m, but if you're worried about that then you're probably not going to spend a lot of time in powder one way or another. The stance is set back by default and there's a 15mm taper.

After originally disliking the shape, I've become used to it. It's not pretty, but I can see what it does and the graphics are prettier up close than they look on screen. 

I rode a few days in Cat-accessed coastal BC powder, and now I'm playing with it in heli interior powder, although the powder's not as magnificent as last season. 

I picked the 154 - worryingly short for people like me who don't like the Con Artist type short boards in deep powder. The good news is that this feels like a proper snowboard, not like those boys' toys. The weight recommendations are spot on, and this is definitely the right size for someone of my weight.

The shape reminds of last season's Capita Spring Break , except that was a bit of a plank, where as this isn't. For what it's worth last year's Spring Breaks were often broken, too... maybe they had a  batch problem, and I'm sure they replaced them, but watch out for that if buying 2nd hand (avoid last season's). Anyway, this board is a different kettle of fish. It's wide, with lots of running length, and upturned tip & tail. It's a traditional camber design: thankfully the snowboard rocker fashion is dead other than as a marketing concept. The tail works the way you'd expect, and the camber works well in powder. 

I've no intention of riding this anywhere near a piste, but if you did I'd guess that it'd be reasonably ok there if you really must. 

I've not (yet) tried to compare this with my last-year's favourite Landlord, but I think I like this better. The Panhandler looks like a Con Artist successor and is a bit less dedicated back country, so I think I'll pass on that. The Flight Attendant is a rockered narrow park board which I consequently hated from the start.

It's a Terje/JG design so maybe you'd expect it to work. Not revolutionary, just a board you can get on which will do anything in a reliable way. It's the sort of board which makes you think that the limit is what you can think of doing with it, rather than what it can do.
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Other people were on a range of powder designs. Japanese boards seem popular, and generally shapes and marketing (for powder boards at least) seem to have moved some distance in the right direction this season.

[Lurch]

Good report Phil. What bindings you running?(assuming this is a channel mount)

[philw]

Yes, it's a channel board... and the little black things which sit in that channel come with the Burton Bindings, not with the board.... so you have to go back to the shop to get a set of those. Which they didn't charge me for (I did not buy the board from them).

I'll post a shot later, but these are standard F2 Intec Race Ti bindings. I have the standard 4x4 base plates, which you can use unmodified, but you have to rotate them so the angle gauge doesn't work anymore if you do that. Hence a few years back I just drilled a couple of holes along the centre line of the 4x4 plates.... and then I can use the channel and everything lines up.

The first year of the channel was different, so watch that if you're buying 2nd hand. But since then, the little black things accept standard screws. You need therefore the four (two per foot) black things, plus four screws, and also four washers/ spacers. I use the standard Burton ones, which you can put in "either way up". Just work out which way works and use them that way.

It's rock solid, and I've used these for years on lots of Burton boards. I use the same (mellow by Bomber standards) 45 degree parallel angles as my race board. The stance width on this 154 board is sensible even on the reference settings - it's a good design.

[lamby]

Super helpful. Thanks!

[philw]

Here's a shot of the bindings with my "drilled out" ti 4x4 plates. And those aren't my feet!

Edited January 17, 2018 by philw

[philw]

Update.... 

finally I found some resort powder to ride this in. There was rain in Revelstoke this morning, so snow up top and a mixture low down at the resort.... maybe 20cm of good but moist powder at the top, running down to Scottish snowball snow at the bottom (which they're calling the mid-station now they lowered the base yada yada yada).

I started on my Kessler SL because I didn't really know what would be there, but it was full on fresh-tracks powder stuff. For what it's worth the Kessler works ok in resort powder, but you have to have excellent balance and you need to ride it like you're riding eggs. That is, if you edge too hard the board'll sink and you'll strike the piste under the powder, which isn't particularly comfortable or stylish. Edging gently, so the board floats, is a better approach although requires speed.

I swapped it for the Dump Truck. Initially that was precisely what I'd expect - it rips any kind of decent powder, trees, all that stuff.

Then I learnt something everybody else probably already knows, but it was interesting to me at least. Once you're riding chopped up crud, if you have a narrow-ish stance (I'm on 45 degree parallel) on a wide board, then it's really hard to make it run well. The extra width of the board doesn't matter an iota in deep powder, but as soon as you're trying to edge it (ride with your weight primarily on the edge rather than the base), it's really hard work. Riding was black and white: where there was enough crud to bank the board, it was fine, but where I needed that edge.... it was terrible.

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So I'm thinking... this is my board for back country powder, and it rips in hard boots for that because I don't need to engage the edge there, ever.

If you're planning on riding resort powder though, you need to work out how you're going to edge a board this wide. I didn't have the time to suss it out, but I suppose I'd need to broaden my stance more, to use this board in that circumstance. I haven't checked, but it may be that "Hard boot specific" powder boards are narrower for this reason.